Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Warns China Poses Toughest Dilemma For AI Slowdown Proposal

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated Sunday that the toughest dilemma regarding his proposal to slow the advancement of artificial intelligence is whether adversarial nations like China will cooperate. Speaking to CBS News, Amodei explained that while working together to put a speed limit on AI progress is ideal, military advantages and fierce competition make it exceptionally difficult.

Amodei published an essay on Saturday urging tech companies to moderate the development speed of their most advanced models following stark safety warnings from industry researchers. The proposal outlines a three-step plan involving third-party safety verifications, coordination among democratic nations, and outreach to authoritarian governments. Chinese President Xi Jinping separately called for a consensus-based global AI governance framework at the BRICS summit in India.

"I think that is going to be very difficult because the incentives to pull ahead and the military advantage that you get from that are so large," said Amodei during his television appearance.

The proposal drew swift reactions across Silicon Valley, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk expressing varying levels of support for pacing frontier models. Meanwhile, critics such as David Sacks argued that leading firms possess the autonomy to slow development voluntarily without demanding specific regulatory frameworks.

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to discuss artificial intelligence during a White House meeting on September 24. Concurrently, major AI labs are navigating intense public scrutiny, rising data center backlash, and complex corporate positioning ahead of anticipated initial public offerings.